The afternoon was just getting dark when we got to Bistritz, which is a very interesting old place. It is almost exactly on the frontier, because the Borgo Pass leads from this town into Bukovina. Bistritz has had a very stormy history, and it certainly shows the signs of it. Fifty years ago a series of great fires took place, which did terrible damage on five separate occasions. At the very beginning of the seventeenth century it underwent a siege of three weeks and lost 13,000 people, the casualties of the war itself being increased by famine and disease.

Count Dracula had directed me to go to the Golden Krone Hotel, which I found, to my great delight, to be thoroughly old-fashioned, for of course I wanted to see all I could of the traditions of the country.

I was evidently expected, for when I got near the door I met a cheery-looking elderly woman in the usual peasant dress - white undergarment with a long apron, front, and back. This was made of coloured material and was almost too tight for modesty. When I came close she bowed and said, "The Herr Englishman?"

"Yes," I said, "Jonathan Harker." She smiled, and gave some message to an elderly man in a white shirt, who had come with her to the door.

Vocabulary:

Stormy: With many dramatic events
Frontier: The border of a country
Undergo: Endure something difficult
Siege: When an enemy army sits outside your city
Casualties: People killed or injured
Famine: When there is no food in the area
Undergarment: Something worn under the clothes
Apron: Something to cover the front of your clothes
Too tight for modesty: Showing a lot of her body